Suit Fabrics Can Make A Huge Difference

The suit you wear probably makes as much a statement these days as the car you drive. Whereas the color and style of your suit is important, equally the suit fabrics have much to do with both feel and appearance.

Men’s suits are either wool or non-wool. Regardless of whether you are buying “off the peg” or tailor made, choosing the correct fabric is the right place to start.

Non-wool suits consist of mainly polyester, linen or silk. Polyester is a man-made material and it would certainly not be most peoples first fabric choice. It can (and often is) used with wool to help lower the cost of buying a pure wool suit.

Linen is very light, cool and can be easily cut into a nice stylish design. The downside is that it creases very easily indeed and gets dirty and stains easily. A day at work in a linen suit will result in very creased trousers from sitting at the desk. In addition, the cost of cleaning a linen suit can be very high.

Often, men wish to own a silk suit. Stories abound of visitors to Hong Kong having made to measure silk suits completed in record time and delivered to their hotel room. Silk is soft and strong and can be blended with linen or wool. A pure silk suit is both cool to wear and a thing of beauty. Alas, nowadays an expensive thing of beauty.

Wool is by far the best fabric to choose for men's suits. Blends of wool (usually with Polyester) can help reduce the cost and tendency to crease, but 100% pure wool is the way to go.

Of the various types of woolen suit, the tweed is probably one of the best known (probably because it’s more often worn by older gentlemen). However, despite the fact that tweed is warm in the winter, it’s very heavy and styles can be unflattering.

Worsted is an ideal choice. It is very hard wearing, and depending upon the weave it can be made into light or heavyweight suits, is resistant to creasing, and can be worn year round. Of all the popular suit fabrics, worsted is the tried and tested favorite.